Of Moths and MenYahmdallah is scared of moths. Hey, stay out of central Texas, we've got an unusual number of big ol' hummingbird moths (see above photo) flocking this year. They really do look like hummingbirds--they're big and they hover in place while they feed. One of them laid a clutch of eggs on our porch post, to the infinite delight of Offspring #1.
But I don't care for unidentified visiting reptiles. Behold the latest e-mails off our neighborhood listserve:
But I don't care for unidentified visiting reptiles. Behold the latest e-mails off our neighborhood listserve:
E-mail #1:
Hello neighbors,
Is anyone missing a five foot long black and gold snake? It appeared
in our front lawn this morning.
Please email me offlist immediately if this snake belongs to you. We will otherwise take it to the creek later this evening.
Thanks so much!
E-mail #2:
Hello again,
Through the space between the lid and container, propped open with a stick, the snake made a break for it around 4 p.m. It's happily slithering its way around [neighborhood] as I write.
I am not doing any yardwork any time soon.
posted by The Opinionated Homeschooler at 2:51 PM
5 Comments:
Five feet seems a bit extreme. The black and gold bit doesn't ring any bells.
I don't think you should be doing yardwork, anyway. It's too hot and steamy out there (she says from her dangerously chilly government office building.)
Yeah, the only local snakes I know that get that size are the rat snakes, and I've never seen one black and gold. Someone's pet, I'm guessing. Probably frightened and edgy. And hungry.
Thanks for the warning!
This last weekend, we had a 1 foot bull snake in our basement. I went down to get something and there it was.
You know how when you encounter something that is so unexpected, you get to witness your brain thrashing around for some version of reality to present?
Well, when I first spotted it, it was among the toys we have down there. I thought to myself, "Self, I didn't know we had such a realistic fake snake." At that moment it moved.
I sometimes visualize our brains as several Hollywood assistants who run around serving the main diva (or in men, whatever the male equivalent of a diva is), which Freud would have called our ego (if I recall my psych. 101 correctly). Usually there's not much fuss, but in this case, they all huddle in a corner of the room because they know if anyone gets this wrong, there will be hell to pay. The ego stands there gazing calmly at the snake waiting for a report. Finally, one of the assistants draws the short straw and ventures forward to whisper in ego's ear, "Yes, that's a real live snake."
Then ego flips out and gets the motor functions to run for the shovel to dispatch the snake.
One of our neighbors is a snake lover, and the four or five times we kill a snake in our yard, he always goes, "Oh man!" When we told him of this event, we thought we'd finally win him to our side since it was among the children's toys, but no, "Oh man!"
Of course you're not going to be doing yardwork, snake or no snake. You're about the whelp another child.....
On a completely unrelated topic -- public schools -- this was in the WSJ online opinion section, about the Bong Hits 4 Jesus case...
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/dhenninger/?id=110010267
I clicked on the link and read Thomas' summary of free speech in schools. It was a fun overview.
Hope all is well!
[Did Yahmdallah ever see the early-90's sitcom Herman's Head? It's eerily close to his thought processes. Herman was a young professional, and his mind was divided into the libido, the intellect, the empathy, and the anxiety, or something like that, with actors playing each part. Check it out on IMDB -- I'm sure it's there.]
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